RED REACTION
It’s a big step in the right direction for a lot of Lodi businesses. I’m happy to see this and I’m hopeful we can get into orange as soon as possible. I would have liked to seen it come sooner but I understand the safety precautions.
At the same time, a lot of research is showing there may be greater damage done by people staying at home. We’re not getting along with each other and people have a lot of builtup anxiety.
Moving into the state’s red tier is a great thing for Lodi tourism. Visitors can now experience indoor dining, and museums and attractions that were otherwise completely closed. Also, being in the red tier, rather than in the widespread purple tier gives visitors that may be hesitant to travel an increased sense of security.
We continue to see growing visitation to Lodi. People are tired of being shut-in. They are ready to get out, travel and have new experiences. According to Destination Analysts Travel Sentiment Survey, between April 2-4, positive sentiment towards travel reached new pandemic-era peaks with nearly 70% of people surveyed saying they were either already traveling or ready to travel.
Wineries have been fairly busy the last two months since opening up at the end of January. People are definitely visiting wine country as it’s an approachable, safe place to visit. We’ve had good traffic. (Moving into red) will signal to visitors that it’s safe to go out and we’ll continue to see increases in traffic. We’ve been fortunate that the weather has been beautiful for awhile and outdoor tasting is more desirable than indoor this time of year. The pandemic rules have forced a shift in how wine tasting is done to a more seated, reservationstyle format and that seems to be going over well with vendors.
I’m thrilled like everyone else that we’ve gotten into the red tier. We’re absolutely ecstatic for ourselves and other gym owners and exercise studios who have been enduring this challenge. I hope our members who up until now have not felt comfortable coming back into the gym will now come back and be able to feel they can safely get back into exercise routines and lifestyles that mean so much to them. It’s been a difficult challenge for everybody financially, some businesses more than others. All indications with vaccines ramping up as quickly as they are and with numbers going down that hopefully by some time in summer we’ll be in some kind of normal world.